Navi Mumbai corporation says no trust in civic chief

The motion was passed in 17 minutes after mayor Sudhakar Sonawane of the NCP put it to vote without discussion.In all, 104 of the 110 corporators present assented. Only the six of BJP opposed the motion.Sameera Kapoor Munshi | October 26, 2016, 13:31 IST

NAVI MUMBAI: The general body of the municipal corporation here passed a no-confidence motion against civic chief Tukaram Mundhe by an overwhelming majority on Tuesday . It is an open secret that the commissioner, in his brief five-month tenure, had ruffled feathers and his actions are believed to have affected the vested interests of corporators.

The motion was passed in 17 minutes after mayor Sudhakar Sonawane of the NCP put it to vote without discussion.In all, 104 of the 110 corporators present assented. Only the six of BJP opposed the motion.

“The general body has decided that it does not need an official who lacks positive vision for the city and is rather only interested in demeaning democracy and its elected representatives. The House will ask the state government to depute an official from Cidco or the zilla parishad with immediate effect,“ said Sonwane.

“I will continue my work until I am ordered not to do by the state. I had asked the mayor to let me place my side in the House, but I was not given a chance to do so,“ Mundhe, 41, said on Tuesday evening.

The clash with the 2005batch IAS officer started almost as soon as he was handpicked by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and installed on May 2, 2016. It is said he did not call on the mayor after taking charge. Then he began cracking down on indiscipline among the NMMC officials, going on to suspend 10 bigwigs.

Soon he started interacting with citizens to learn about their grievances. It attracted the ire of the corporators, who claimed he was belittling the elected representatives.

Mundhe took decisions like insisting on Automated Water Meters despite opposition from the ruling dispensation, implementing the 135 litres per capita per day water norms for residents and can celling of wasteful pet projects of politicians such as the Rs 20crore marble cladding on Ambedkar Bhavan.

Mundhe targeted vested interests in various departments, which upset the ruling NCP which has been ruling the civic body for years now. From uncovering the property scam to maladministration in the health department, including favouring of large hospital groups and malpractices in purchases, Mundhe took on corruption in the NMMC.

On the other hand, he cracked down on illegal hawkers, acted against commercial enterprises found violating licencing rules, started work on improving infrastructure like paving footpaths, introduced segregation of waste and other measures, winning huge support from the citizens. After the no-trust motion, citizens have started a petition demanding that Mundhe be allowed to continue his good work.

The six BJP corporators had called for a discussion prior to voting. “The motion was passed without giving the commissioner a chance to defend himself,“ said BJP corporator Ramchandra Gharat.But the others were implacable. “For any policy decision, approval of the general body is necessary which the commissioner repeatedly chose to ignore .Things went out of hand with his decision to get automated water meters despite the general body ordering suspension of the process,“ said NCP corporator Netra Shirke.